How comfortable your retirement is can depend a lot on where you spend it. Here are the states ranked from best to worst for your golden years.

It's really never too soon to start asking that question or to start figuring out where you'll make those dreams come true. As Americans live longer -- and some even take on part-time jobs in their golden years -- they're forced to navigate an increasingly complicated landscape of challenges to financial preparedness while planning to find an ideal place to enjoy a relaxing and fulfilling retirement.

For most Americans, eight key factors combine to make up the perfect retirement destination. First and foremost, they want a place with low costs of living so that their savings and Social Security will go further. (Sorry Manhattanites... you may not be bringing them in by droves.)

They'd like to know how much there will be to do once they arrive, how nice the weather is and whether their taxes will go up. Finally, looking for a sense of community, an increasing number of people would like to know how many other retirees will live nearby.

To figure out the states which solve these problems best, Bankrate crunched the numbers on these eight factors and came up with a list: the states ranked from first to worst in terms of retirement.